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The Daily Tar Heel

Write-ins show a lack of pride in student elections

TO THE EDITOR:

In POLI 100, we’re taught that our votes don’t count in presidential elections. While this may be true at the national level, it’s clearly not true in student body president votes.

The breakdown of the 6.3 percent of write-in votes in Tuesday’s election was extremely disappointing. It’s true that some candidates run earnestly on write-in votes, but options like “James Bond” and “Beyonce’s baby” are clearly not.

The focal point of the graphic, “a large ham sandwich,” received more than five votes as a write-in candidate.

Whether or not the people who wrote in joke answers in the election would have voted for Longest or another candidate, the fact that a sandwich – and one that’s not even kosher! – received more votes than the difference by which he lost sends a bad message about students’ pride in their university.

If I were Longest, I’d be pretty pissed at losing by a large ham sandwich.

Meghan DeMaria ’13 Classical Civilizations

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